Translational Virology - COVID-19, The Perfect Example

Translational virology, characterized as “from bench to bedside”, covers all issues from basic research through clinical evaluation and final registration and drug/vaccine approval. It covers the identification of the cause of disease, screening of potential prophylactic or therapeutic agents, evaluation in animal models, confirmation of activity in human clinical trials, registration and approval. The recent COVID-19 pandemic represents a perfect example of translational virology, which demonstrated an unprecedented cooperation from the identification of the SARS-CoV-2 to the rapid development of potential repurposed and novel drugs and vaccines for both prophylactic and therapeutic applications. After confirmation of therapeutic and prophylactic efficacy in animal models, clinical phase I-III evaluation was carried out in an overlapping strategy, reducing the development time significantly. To maximize the chances of success, vaccines based on whole viruses, protein and peptide subunits, viral vectors and nucleic acids were developed in parallel. Based on good safety profiles and robust immune responses, COVID-19 vaccine candidates were granted emergency use authorization worldwide allowing the start of mass vaccinations. More than 13.6 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, and although severe adverse events have been registered millions of lives have been saved. Due to emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants vaccine re-engineering has been required as part of translational virology. Vaccine production, storage, transport and distribution have also been given attention.